Mode=FAT Menu: [Generic FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 File System]

Display a usage map for the currently selected disk or filesystem
A pseudo-graphical map of the disk or partition allocation is
displayed, showing the distribution of data over the object
This is also an indication for the amount of unused sectors in
the object, that are beneficial to 'SMART-SECTOR' optimizations
in imaging and cloning operations.
The percentage of used sectors are displayed as a percentage at
the end of the line, and a total usage percentage and size is
shown just after the map itself.
For filesystems that support resizing, the limits for resizing
are shown after the map itself.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will find all sectors in the partition that appear to be
the first sector of a subdirectory (containing the '..' name)
and that have a cluster-value of 0.
This should be subdirectories of the ROOT directory.
This can be useful if the root-directory is damaged, and data
needs to be recovered anyway.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will find all sectors in the partition that appear to be
the first sector of a subdirectory (containing the '..' name)
and that have a cluster-value that is non-ZERO.
This should be subdirectories that are NOT a ROOT subdirectory.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will search the whole partition for DIR-entries of DELETED
files that match the partial filename (wildcard) specified.
The sectornumbers of the found DIR-entries will be added to the DFSee
sectorlist so can be used in later actions, or be exported to a file.
The files contained in that list can NOT be RECOVERED yet, due to the
missing or incomplete allocation information for deleted files on FAT.
RECOVER will be unreliable by definition, but there might be some
'best-we-can-do' type of recovery offered in future versions ...
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will search the whole partition for DIR-entries of non-deleted
regular files that match the partial filename (wildcard) specified.
You can also search for specific file-extensions by using a syntax
like '*.ext' or '*.c*' for the partial filename
The sectornumbers of the found Dir-entries will be added to the DFSee
sectorlist so can be used in later actions, or be exported to a file.
The files contained in that list can be RECOVERED to any directory
on the system, including a network, by using the 'RECOVER' command.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will show the contents of a single directory, specified
by a PATH from the ROOT directory, or by selecting a directory
from the browse list itself (including the '..' directory).
Alternatively, the CURRENT contents of the sectorlist can be
browsed, when available (by specifying a '.' for the directory
The list can be browsed in an interactive dialog, a bit like
a regular filemanager.
The dialog will allow 'actions' to be performed on the listed
files/directories, using <ENTER> to get the popup menu:
- View contents, as ASCII on File/Dir
- View as x86 Assembler - disassembly
- HEX-edit, contents only on File/Dir
- Edit Contents, autoview on File/Dir
- View OS/2 EA or Xattr on a File/Dir
- Edit DATA area sectors for File/Dir
- Edit META:Inode/Fnode/MFT/Dir-entry
- Edit the base filename for File/Dir
- Copy/Recover File(s) to other drive
- Reduce list to SELECTED files only
When the browse session is ended (<Esc> or <F3> key):
- the SAME filesystem/partition stays selected
You can restart browse the same partition with the <F9> key,
or start browsing another partition from the Actions menu
using: 'Actions -> Open Partition, Browse FS'
- the sector-list contains the last browsed directory
and can be viewed with commands like 'list -f
- The last entry (file) that was selected will also be set
as the current sector-location ('this'), so it easy to
analyse that furthher, for example by using the HEX-editor
that can be started with <F2>, or simply by viewing the
sector using the <Enter> key.
Note: When working in 'mode=FDISK' (with a whole disk opened)
you will be presented with a selection-list to pick a
partition with a filesystem first.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Recover (selected) files from the list to a supplied recovery directory

This will allow you to recover (copy) one or more of the files in the
list to any local or network directory on your system.
It will prompt for a destination directory first, using the last used
one as a default. All files recovered in one go, will be recovered to
this same directory, with their original path appended to retain the
directory structure whenever possible.
It will also prompt for a selection specification in the form of a
full PATH+FILENAME wildcard and an optional allocation-percentage.
As an example, the specification:
'*mydoc*\*project_x*.doc%100'
will recover all files that have 'mydoc' somewhere in the PATH,
'project_x' in the filename and have an extension of '.doc' that
seem to be 100% recoverable. (100% allocation-OK ranking).
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This uses the specified path from the root-directory to locate
detailed information for the file or directory for that path.
This will be from the FNODE on HPFS, the MFT-record on NTFS or
similar structures like Inodes on other filesystrems.
The path and filename may contain spaces.
When found the information will be displayed in the standard
format as defined for the filesystem that is active.
You can display related information like the directory entry
or the actual file data from there using the U and D commands.
You can also use the 'saveto' command or corresponding menu
item 'Recover THIS file' to create a copy of this found file
on the specified or default recovery destination
(or use the combined menu option instead of this find :-)
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This uses the specified path from the root-directory to locate
information for the file or directory for that path.
This will be from the FNODE on HPFS, the MFT-record on NTFS or
similar structures like Inodes on other filesystrems.
The path and filename may contain spaces.
When found the information at THAT level (1st, direct)
will be opened in the standard HEX editor
This will often be META-data about the file or directory,
with a layout strongly defined by the filesystem type
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This uses the specified path from the root-directory to locate
information for the file or directory for that path.
This will be from the FNODE on HPFS, the MFT-record on NTFS or
similar structures like Inodes on other filesystrems.
The path and filename may contain spaces.
When found the information at the NEXT level (2nd, indirect)
will be opened in the standard HEX editor
This 'next' level is what would be displayed using a 'd' command
or using the ENTER key when the first level is being displayed.
It will often be data or contents for the file or directory.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Boot area fixes/updates -> Fix the Bootsector

Fix bootsector by replacing from spare (FAT32) or create new

This will create a new FAT/FAT32 bootsector for the partition, using
information from the partition-tables, or for FAT32 by replacing it
with the spare-copy found at LSN 7
This can be very useful when the bootsector got damaged by a virus
or a crashing program (writing to sector 0) or if the partition was
deleted by accident using FDISK or LVM and recreated again.
You can specify the desired type for the bootsector in the
prompt dialog, with a default of M = MS-DOS, select from:
I or P IBM/PC-DOS with IBMBIO/IBMDOS.COM
M MSDOS with IO/MSDOS.SYS
O OS/2 with OS2BOOT
N Win-NT with NTLDR (FAT16)
9 Win-9x with WINBOOT.SYS (FAT32)
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Find (first) BOOT.INI, display the default line and partition-index to boot

This will search for the first occurence of a 'BOOT.INI' file in
the currently opened filesystem (FAT, FAT32 or NTFS).
When found, some info of the file will be displayed, and the line
containing the DEFAULT partition to be booted will be displayed
including the 'partition(W)' partition index. It should look like:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
Below that line, the partition-index for the CURRENT partition
as calculated by DFSee will be shown. From these two values you
can see if the BOOT.INI default entry is correct for booting the
Windows contained in the current selected partition (if any).
Note that DFSee can only calculate the correct value when the
filesystem was opened as a PARTITION, not as a volume ...
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will prompt for a replacement value for the partition-index
to be used in the 'default' boot line in the BOOT.INI file.
Specify '*' or 'fix' to use the value calculated by DFSee,
or fill in a numeric value if you want to try another one.
Add a ' -2' after this value to force BOTH occurences in the
BOOT.INI file to be updated at the same time. Updating just one
might be safer, since the old value is still there too, but it
will result in a the Windows BOOTMANAGER menu toi be displayed
with these two (now different) partitions selected.
The corrected one will be the 'default' line ...
In some situations, it might be needed to try out a few values
to find the one that will allow Windows to boot again ...
It will then search for the first occurence of a 'BOOT.INI' file
in the currently opened filesystem (FAT, FAT32 or NTFS).
When found, some info of the file will be displayed, and the line
containing the DEFAULT partition to be booted will be displayed
including the 'partition(W)' partition index. It should look like:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
Below that line, the partition-index calculated by DFSee is shown.
Incorrect values for the default partition-index will lead to
boot failures with messages like:
Invalid Boot.ini
or
Windows could not start because the following file
is missing or corrupt: Windows\system32\Hal.dll
The specified or calculated value will be substituted for the
partition-index in the default line.
Of course you need to reboot to test if this fix worked ...
Note:
Unless you specify the ' -2' option with the value,
this is NOT a full 'REPAIR' of your BOOT.INI file!
It is just the minimum update to allow booting Windows again!
You must properly edit boot.ini once Windows is running again,
or use 'bootcfg /rebuild' from the recovery-console that can
be started from regular Windows installation CDs.
When there is damage to the BOOT.INI file beyond an incorrect
partition-index, fixing it this way might not be possible.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will update the 'hidden sectors' field in the bootsector
to match the offset to the partition-table the partition is
defined in and update the geometry Heads and Sectors field to
match the current disk geometry.
This could be REQUIRED for some operating systems like OS/2
to accept and mount the partition as a driveletter!
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Reset the bad-sector administration to show ZERO bad-sectors or clusters

This will check for bad-sectors being present in the
filesystem and when present, reset to NO bad sectors.
FAT: Reset all 'BAD' values in the FAT to FREE
EFAT: Reset all 'BAD' values in the FAT to FREE
NTFS: Update $BadClus and $BitMap to reset bad-clusters
HPFS: Make the bad-sector-list in the spare-block empty
This can be very useful after cloning or imaging a partition
or disk that includes bad-sectors to a new replacement one.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Make the currently selected PRIMARY the 'active' partition for MBR/BIOS boot

This will make the currently selected PRIMARY partition the
ACTIVE one for the disk.
There should only be a single active partition on every disk.
When the system starts, the BIOS will usually boot from
the ACTIVE partition on the first disk.
In IBM BMGR/LVM terms the active partition is called STARTABLE.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will delete the partition that is currently selected to be
deleted from the partition-tables. This will result in the space
occupied by the partition becoming FREESPACE that can be used
again to create new partitions.
For primary partitions on LVM-systems, the related LVM-information
is cleared as well, to avoid consistency problems later when a new
partition is created at the same position.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Update FAT status field in the bootsector to indicate filesystem is CLEAN

This will update the fileystem-status field in the FAT bootsector
to indicate that filesystem is CLEAN.
This can be useful to avoid an automatic CHKDSK after a system-crash
Note: The filesystem itself is NOT cleaned in any way, it is just the
statusflag that is modified.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Check filesystem for inconsistencies and errors (Readonly, no fixing!)

This will perform a CHECK of the filesystem, somewhat like the
well-known CHKDSK but without automatically fixing anything.
The result of the check is a sector-lookup-table (SLT) that contains
information about all recognized filesystem areas that are in use.
Any error recognized will be flagged in the default display of
this SLT that is performed automatically by the CHECK command.
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

Show layout of current object by displaying parts of the Sector Lookup Table

This will display part of the sector-lookup-table (SLT)
You wil be presented with an option dialog first, where you
specify the desired format and part of the SLT to be displayed.
The SLT will be built automatically if not done yet, and it will
have been built by any previous CHECK command too.
Building the SLT will take place in the background while the
dialog can be used freely to specify any options for displaying.
After the dialog has been ended, and the SLT is ready, it will
be displayed as requested.
Typically the SLT will contain at least one entry for every file
on the filesystem, so there could be hundreds of thousands lines!
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

From main menu: Mode=FAT -> Identify sectors (SLT) -> Identify Last used sector

Show identification for the last sector used, dictating the minimum FS size

This will display information about the sector that is the last
one being used (allocated) in the filesystem, and because of that
dictates the MINIMUM size for the filesystem for a RESIZE.
The most useful info is the sector referencing this sector, this
often leads to showing to which file/directory the sector belongs.
The SLT will be generated automatically if not yet available,
just as the required allocation information (alloc).
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'

This will UNSELECT the current object/filesystem, and reselect a
whole physical disk, either the same disk as the partition was on,
or the first disk present in other cases.
This is a quick way to change to 'Mode=FDISK' and work on
disk-level issues
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Press <F1> again for more help; Some options may require switching to 'Expert mode'